Intake Failure 3800 Park Avenue

Well group it havent been 2 weeks befor i thought i had saved my self some
big bucks .. Sunday nite my park avenue quit on my while traveling down
I-85. Started making rattling noise and died, Had car towed back to Sandy's

Service center which they broke donw the engine and calling me just to day
to tell me I need a engine. They rechecked there work and went to the oil
pan and discovered the bearing had spun. $4000.00 for a new engine or i
could settle for a rebuilt. I did tune up and all last week an this is what
happen . Thanks a lot GM.
Had my 99 park avenue 3800 II plenum and lower intake gaskets fix, cool with
in two weeks my car had consumed a full resivor of coolant, no exterior
leaks could be seen. but kept adding coolant. Did my research, and found all
the talk bout the 3800 and 3.4 & 3.1 liter engine with dex cool and
gaskets.. BUICK dealter told me $625 to replace both if needed, my mechanic
she only charged me $358.. She showed me that there was a hole in the
plenum also showed me in due time the gasket was bound to fail, with all the
weak spots in it. She replaced it with a thicker gasket...
Thanks Sandy you are a awesome mechanic

This may have been avoided, was the oil changed when this job was done, if
not it should have been ,if so there would have signs of coolant in the oil,
this would have signalled the shop to suspect possible bearing damage from
the intermix and pull the pan down to look at the bearings, this is the
standard procedure with this type of extreme internal coolant loss.

No he needs to thank GM for the poor design because he really should not
have had to be bothered with replacing the gasket in the first place, just
like hundreds and thousands of others who have had the same problem. A great
way for GM to build customer loyalty. After being a life long fan of GM, I
am about to jump ship if they dont come out with something worth buying
...fast.

This personally does also bother me. I'm in the market for a new
or newer car right now(well when my refund comes - heh) and it's
a real PITA that I have to avoid half of their entire lineup
because of the proliferation of the same 3.x engines with the
same nasty problem that they can't seem to manage to fix.
Chrysler is the same, too, with their gaskets and also their
transmissions. 30K and a blown head gasket is impossible
to believe. My 81 Buick was a complete piece of junk and
yet the engine never had gasket problems(though just about
everything else died, the engine still ran at 150K+)
Ford, well, they're Ford. Test drove a Contour a while back
and it did nothing for a full second during an emergency
downshift to avoid a car going through a red light.
"Oh no! *stomp*...one thousand... *thunk!*"(audable slamming
into gear)
Right now, a Vibe is near the top of the list. Toyota engine
design, and GM pricing and incentives. Unfortunately, it's
about the only GM product on the list.

Yep, GM really cannot afford to be pissing off as many of their loyal
customers as they have been, but the endless round of intake manifold gasket
failures and the engines those failure often take with them are sure putting
a bite on the General.
Honda has had some chronic problems with transmissions ... and responded by
automatically extending the transmission warranty to 100,000 miles on the
affected models. Do you think the General would ever be that smart?
It seems that the once strong US based auto industry is in the long painful
process of killing itself.
John

Honda was smart - you'd rather loose money than customers anyday
as it gives you plenty of time to fix your problems. Loose
a customer and well, they 99% of the time won't come back
thanks to the hundreds of cars to chose from.(not even counting
used or classic ones - then it grows into over a thousand choices)

just
I
gasket
putting
by
painful
And guess what...if GM had fixed my Intake gasket failure problem even
though it was out of warranty for free..my next car would more than likely
be another GM product. Even if they had picked up half of the $800 tab then
GM would be highly considered as my next vehicle. But because of the cost
and inconvenience and the negative patterns of GM, its highly unlikely my
next vehicle will be from GM, they have now just established a very bad
track record and there is just so much more available other than GM.

You know that everything that goes "round and round" is going to brake
down. I doesn't matter what brand it is it is going to brake sometime
some where. GM trannys and the 3800 engine are probably it's strongest
point. Granted their styling sucks but that's easily changed. I do
think that if they had taken it to a GM repair facility GM would have
done it correctly.

You obviously have not researched the chronic intake manifold gasket
problems of the 3.1-3.4l engines and the leaking plastic manifold of the
late model 3.8l.
I have owned two well maintained GM 3.4l powered minivans .... both of which
needed the intake manifold gaskets replaced within 3 years of purchase.
This is common on these vehicles. Many times the failure is not caught
early and the anti-freeze leakage into the oil causes massive problems.
John

And I own a 91 Transport with 215k miles on a 3.1 and never had the
gasket problem only timing chain and gears at 98k miles. Still has
original exhaust and it's still quiet too. This thing has been rode
hard and put away wet many times and never any major problem.
My original comment has to do with his mechanic NOT checking the oil
for contamination after a gasket change. The bad oil is what caused the
failure of the rod bearing. Like I said, cheap mechanic equals
incomplete job.

Your 91 doesn't use the same design of intake manifold gaskets as
the failure prone ones being discussed, it also didn't come with
DexCool coolant which -may- play a role in the premature gasket
failures.

Actually, this whole story stinks of contamination by 3M 'Roloc"
pads.

No, 3M should not take them off the market. They are quite useful
"if you know what you are doing with them, and when to use them".
The problem is not the tool...it's the tech's that don't know how and when
to use them properly.
Ian

<snip>
Can you elaborate a bit more about your timing chain problem, please?
Did you simply replace it or did it break, or chip teeth on one or
both of the gears?
If it broke, did it do damage to the valves and/or pistons? If so,
how much did this add to the cost of the fix?
Also, what was the cost of repair? And was it done by you, a dealer,
or an indy shop?
(Sorry if I sound like I'm asking too many questions!)
I ask because I have a 1996 3.1L Beretta with 130k miles, and I'm
thinking of having the timing chain, gears, and water pump replaced as
a preventative measure.
It's a combo of cash being tight (don't want the extra cost of valve
or piston damage) plus I would like to avoid being totally stranded if
the chain goes poof.
Many thanks for any and all info!
Rick

They grind down as the main cog has synthetic teeth instead
of good old fashioned steel. Eventually the chain slips
a tooth or two and the car is an instant doorstop until it
is fixed.(won't start more than one time in ten)
Replaced with a steel cog, though, the assembly will probably
outlast either one of us.

Actually the timing chain problem was from wear not breakage. I had
both sprockets replaced with steel ones and no problems after that. The
water pump on that motor sits on the front side and is easy to see.
You could do this yourself. I would change the serpentine belt and
belt tensioner too after 130k miles. Costs for service vary as you can
see from the original post.

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